The Green Ingredient presents healthy plates packed with flavor

The Green Ingredient – nestled on the bottom floor of the Chase building in Downtown El Paso – is a unique restaurant that offers a large number of dishes with fresh and green ingredients.

Jacqueline Cordova says what sets her restaurant apart is the not-so-normal cuisine. Customers won’t find live octopus or a moldy corn delicacy, she said the items on her menu are a healthy alternative.

Food varies from quinoa pancakes with yogurt and fresh berries to a Feel Good Falafel and a Mediterranean salad.

Cordova started the restaurant after losing a friend, she said.

“The reason we created this restaurant is cancer,” Cordova said.

The family friend was given no more than six months to live. She was allergic to the chemotherapy medication so she decided to change her eating and she turned her three-month life expectancy to about more than four years.

The family friend’s meal plan and life-changing diet inspired the Green Ingredient menu. Cordova conducted research and found that while the food wasn’t a cure, it did improve health.

The lifestyle change is especially important in our border city, Cordova said.

She said some El Pasoans may think healthy food means a sandwich from a nationwide franchise and food like hers is out of their comfort zone.

“We have a lot of people with diabetes, sadly we don’t have enough support because they think the food is expensive,” Cordova said.

This article was produced as part of Borderzine’s Journalism in July 2016 summer workshopfor high school students sponsored by the Dow Jones News Fund and the University of Texas at El Paso Department of Communication.